(LONDON) — Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow for the second consecutive night on Monday, as the Russian capital prepared for Victory Day celebrations that Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Kremlin-friendly world leaders are expected to attend.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a statement posted to Telegram on Tuesday that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were shot down en route to the capital overnight. Another four drones were shot down near Moscow on Sunday night.
Sobyanin reported no casualties or serious damage, though said debris from drones fell on a major highway. Russian aviation authorities said flights were also suspended at four of the capital’s airports.
The drones shot down over Moscow were among the 202 craft intercepted across Russia over the previous 24 hours, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday morning.
Ukraine has continued its drone barrages into Russia as the country prepares to mark Victory Day on May 9 — the annual celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Celebrations will be held all over Russia, with the main event a military parade through Moscow overseen by President Vladimir Putin, top Kremlin officials and visiting world leaders — among them Xi, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Ukraine’s continued strikes have already forced Russian authorities in occupied Crimea to cancel their planned Victory Day parade, with Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev announcing the event would not go ahead due to security concerns, in a statement quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.
In Moscow, meanwhile, authorities warned residents of possible restrictions on transport and mobile internet usage, Tass reported.
Putin last month announced a unilateral cease fire stretching from May 8 to 11 to coincide with Victory Day — a proposal quickly rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is pushing for a full 30-day ceasefire that he hopes will form a launch pad for a broader deal to end Russia’s 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy this week said Putin’s offer was part of a “theatrical performance,” suggesting “it is impossible to build any plan for the next steps to end the war in two or three days.”
Zelenskyy has also warned that Kyiv could not guarantee the security of anyone traveling to attend the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow. “We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Zelenskyy told reporters, according to a report by Ukrainian news agency Interfax.
“They provide you with security; therefore, we won’t give you any guarantees. Because we don’t know what Russia will do these days,” Zelenskyy continued, adding that Russia could also orchestrate provocations such as “arson, bombings and so on, only to blame us.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that Putin’s offer of a “festive truce” is still open, as quoted by Tass. Peskov said Moscow is yet to receive a response from Kyiv.
Russian long-range strikes into Ukraine, meanwhile, also continued overnight into Tuesday, with 11 people injured by a drone strike in Kharkiv, according to local administration head Oleg Synegubov.
Ukraine’s air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 136 drones into the country overnight, of which 54 were shot down and 70 lost in flight without causing damage. Impacts were reported in the Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions, it said.
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